Sometimes finding a sample marketing plan to use as a guide for writing yours can be a challenge. The problem is that there is no “one-size-fits-all” plan that you can specifically use for your business without some kind of modification.

In this article I will outline the 6 necessary elements you need in your marketing plan and some applications that will help illustrate each element. The six things you must include: an evaluation of your marketplace, the profile of your ideal customer, what you want to accomplish as a result of your marketing, the big picture view of media tools, an accountability structure that will aid in implementation, and strong financial proof that your plan will work.

Evaluate your marketplace

No matter what format you use the concept of evaluating your market is always the first step. In this part of the plan you research your top 5-10 competitors and come up with a list of strengths and weaknesses for each. You do the same exercise on your own company. This will help you create a clear picture of how you are different from everyone else.

It is on this foundation that your marketing efforts should be built. In the car rental business Hertz has always been the number one company. This made Avis come up a slogan that could help set it apart… “We’re #2 but we try harder.” This helped position Avis as a company that would work harder for you by giving you that extra level of service.

Profile of your ideal customer

The worst thing you can say about your product or service is that, “everyone has a need for it.” Segmenting your market and defining a specific profile of your best customers will help build your marketing plan in strong and healthy ways. The benefit of clearly defining your target market will not only make your job of creating and choosing marketing materials easier, but it will also save you money because you can focus your efforts on a very specific market segment.

What do you want to accomplish as a result of your marketing?

You can’t measure the success of your plan unless you have clearly defined benchmarks for comparison. Every marketing effort needs goals. They can be long-term or short-term but need to be measurable. Also, part of your plan should include evaluation points to gauge progress of your efforts.

Getting the big picture view of media tools

Before choosing what media tools you are going to use in your campaign it is essential to evaluate each tool based on the information you gathered in the first three sections of your plan. Can you effectively deliver the message of how you are unique through a particular tool? Does the tool clearly reach the ideal target market? Can it help you achieve your goals without making you go broke.

If you have done the appropriate research these questions are typically easy to answer. It is only when you decide on your desired media tool first before evaluating it’s attributes on a big picture level that you can get yourself into trouble.

Creating an accountability structure that will aid in implementation

All of the best laid plans are for nothing if you don’t have a proper implementation system. In most sample marketing plans you can see how a typical marketing calendar is laid out. It really doesn’t have to be that difficult or pretty. You simply need a week-by-week list of the specific marketing activities you want to accomplish in order to complete your overall plan. This involves taking each marketing strategy and tactically dividing it into weekly chunks. The marketing calendar should also contain the evaluation points we discussed before to help measure the progress of your goals.

Having strong financial proof that your plan will work

The final element of any plan should include a budget that gives strong financial proof that your plan will work. This is accomplished by projecting sales as a result of your marketing efforts, accurately costing out the various pieces of your marketing mix and then doing an ROI analysis (Return On Investment). Your ROI analysis should clearly show that your marketing efforts will produce a return. If your company has a long sales cycle then sometimes this will involve simply a break-even on the marketing costs up-front with the promise of larger future sales.

These six necessary elements should be included in any sample marketing plan format you are evaluating: an evaluation of your marketplace, the profile of your ideal customer, what you want to accomplish as a result of your marketing, the big picture view of media tools, an accountability structure that will aid in implementation, and strong financial proof that your plan will work.

No one dreams of failing when starting their business, but the fact is that more than half of all business owners call it quits by the end of their second year and a full 80% before the end of their fifth year. While there are a number of reasons for these stats, by far the biggest reason these businesses fail is that they lack a solid marketing plan.

Too many small business owners believe in the “Field of Dreams” style of doing business – Build it and they will come. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Your success not only relies on a good product/service, but more importantly, good, consistent marketing. A good product without marketing is far more likely to fail than a bad product with good marketing.

When first starting out, too many business owners are either intimidated by the marketing plan process, or simply fail to put one together in the first place. Whether you’re just getting started or have recently come to the realization that your business needs a solid marketing plan in place to move forward, you’re in luck. Simply follow the outline below and you’re sure to get many more customers, with far less time and money on your part.

The 8-Step Guide To A Powerful Marketing Plan

Step I. The Executive Summary

Your executive summary is a two-minute overview of your marketing plan. While this section should be short and to the point, don’t assume everyone who reads your plan knows what your business is about. Include things like your business name, what it does, where it’s located and your target audience.

Talk about the market and how your business plans to fill a gap, the market threats and opportunities. Lastly, talk about your sales objectives and how you plan on reaching them.

Step II. Assess the Situation

Assessing the situation for your business will probably be the most difficult part of your plan to develop and the largest section of your marketing plan. It will also require the most research and is probably the most frustrating section to the business owner.

When researching, break this section up into three distinct categories:

In addition to expanding on your executive summary, be sure to include your mission statement and your overall vision. Also, perform thorough research on your competition and stay abreast of the gaps in your marketplace so you can better fill the needs of your target market.

Step III. Build a Potential Client Base

In this step, you will clarify your strategy of how you expect to grow and maintain a customer base that is large enough to build your business upon. Some of the topics you should be sure to include are:

Spend plenty of time identifying your position and niche, as these are the areas in which your business will either succeed or fail. Next, decide whether you will target current customers or new ones and whether you will market new or current services.

Keep in mind that marketing new services to new customers comes at a higher risk than marketing current services to current customers.

Step IV. Set 6 and 12 Month GoalsOne of the surest ways to succeed is to list specific, measurable goals. Be sure to be as specific as possible and write down what you will do and by when.

* Your goals should focus on the niche you described above
* Your goals should be measurable
* Your goals should aim for 6 month increments

While the majority of your marketing plan is based on thorough research, this section of your plan will rely more on your creativity. Think about where your customers are and the best ways for you to reach them, preferably at the lowest cost to your business. There are literally hundreds of marketing tools you can use to find and get customers, so you’ll need to spend some time learning about some of these tools, and then:

Identify the tools you will use to reach:

* New customers
* Current customers
* Past customers

In addition, you’ll need to identify the tools you will use to ensure a good fit for your:

* Customers
* Budget
* Personality

Depending on your market, your customers will expect you to advertise and/or market to them in certain places. While it’s a good idea to do things somewhat differently from your competitors, don’t try to be different just to be different. Instead, be better, more efficient and more interesting.

Step VI. Identify Resources

Now that the bulk of your marketing plan is complete, it’s time to think about the resources you will need to successfully implement the ideas and goals you’ve come up with. Resources include:

* Costs to your business
* The time required to implement each task
* The person responsible for implementing each task

Do your homework! Each of these resources on their own can make or break your business if you choose unwisely. As with other areas of your business, performing due diligence will increase your chances of success.

Step VII. Develop a Marketing Calendar

This step may not require as much research as some of the other steps, but it’s extremely important to take some time and lay out your plan for at least an entire year.

It’s not sufficient merely to have a plan, you must act on it and the best way to make sure you do that is to create a calendar detailing the activities and strategies you will implement week by week and month by month. You probably won’t see results immediately, but by sticking to your marketing calendar, you are sure to see positive results eventually. Keep your calendar in front of you as much as possible and stick to it.

Step VIII. Implement and Monitor Your Plan

Like any other plan, you not only need to implement the key points and strategies you’ve come up, but to also monitor your actions and the results they create.

Some of the things you’ll want to do are:

* Identify how you will track results
* Identify how you will know if you need to adjust or update your plans
* Identify how you will reward yourself for successful completion of certain activities

Depending on the tools you choose to market your business, there are a number of ways you can go about tracking your results. Diligently check your results and decide if your activities are paying off in some concrete way. It’s not always about making money (though that’s typically the most important result), but you should see some positive results like more names on your mailing list, more phone calls to your business or an increase in word-of-mouth.

As long as you see some positive results, make sure to take some time to reward yourself and your team members for a job well done and build on each new success.

Summary

The more time and effort you put into creating a solid marketing plan, the more likely it is that your business will survive beyond the magic two year mark that claims so many other businesses. Be thorough. Be creative. Be realistic. Keep a firm eye on the competition. And above all, have fun marketing your business because it is the most important reason for your ultimate success or failure.

Last week we talked about taking responsibility for ourselves and our business. So, with that said to also ensure we are taking responsibility and on the road to great success I want to make sure you have all the tools you need to do that. Today we will discuss the basics you need in any marketing plan.

Every marketing plan you have should include these 7 things:

Your plan should have and know it’s segmentation. Segmentation is perhaps the most important because segmentation is your audience, who you are going to market to? Don’t know your segmentation, then start doing research as quick as possible. Again, you need to know your audience so you know who to market to and how to market to them successfully.

A marketing plan needs to have a back up plan. From a competitive standpoint having a back up plan is ideal. Having a back up plan should also include you doing a little research on your competition. Your back up plan should include responses or comebacks to competitor campaigns as well as alternative marketing you can carry out when needed.

A marketing plan needs to feature your points of value. Why should the consumer buy from you instead of the competition. Your points of value will be what sets you apart from the competition. Your points of value will be the benefits of buying products from you and/or using your services. So, be sure to have strong points of value and let your audience know what they are?

Your plan needs to have a strong message and positioning. Be clear with your message. The worst thing you can have is confused potential clients and clients, so BE CLEAR. Use your points of value to create and send a strong message to your potential clients and position yourself on top.

A marketing plan needs to have goals with set deadlines. When developing your successful plan be sure to set different benchmark goals to reach. Also, when setting goals set deadlines for reaching the different goals. We all know having personal and business goals are important and for those same reasons having marketing goals is important too. Goals with deadlines help you to stay focused.

An effective plan needs a plan of implementation. So, you’ve developed the perfect marketing plan,so? That marketing plan can’t be successful if you don’t implement it. So, on top of developing your marketing plan you need to also have a plan for implementing your marketing plan and getting your message out to your audience in a successful way.

A marketing plan needs a budget. You want to develop and implement a marketing plan you can afford. So, set a budget and keep all your marketing within that budget. Need ways to market on a budget check out my blog called 6 Ways To Market On A Budget for tips as well as I did a whole series on free marketing outlets you can use to market.

Having a marketing plan with these elements will put you on the road to success. So, be sure your plan includes these 7 essentials things today, your marketing and business success depends on it.